Soft Skills

By Sydney Heile

First off, in order to get a job you need the skills-skills. By that, I mean you have to be able to DO the job they’re hiring you to do. But you also need to be able to do more than that.

Now you may be thinking, what? Why do I need to do more than what they said in the job description? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret: sometimes the things that aren’t written down matter the most.

This is where soft skills come in. Soft skills are the things you do as a person. I’m talking your personal drive, your ability to relate to a co-worker, be friendly, and so on and so forth.

Sometimes when an employer is looking to hire, they see basically the same thing on every resume, so you have to stand out in your one-on-one interactions. You can do this by demonstrating your soft skills!

To give you a quick list of the most desirable soft skills (as learned from themuse.com):

• Drive

• Self-awareness

• Accountability

• Tenacity

• Empathy

• Authenticity

• Ingenuity

• Fast learner

• Positive attitude

Those soft skills are about getting the work done, yes, but about HOW you get it done. Some of those qualities listed above may seem like common sense, but to quote Hack Wilson (former MLB player):

“In life, you need many more things besides talent. Things like… common sense.”